Espruino JavaScript
Espruino Puck.js on KickStarter #113
Replies: 39 comments
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Posted at 2016-07-06 by Ollie Looks great. So nearly bought a pack of Estimotes recently - glad I didn't - backed!! |
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Posted at 2016-07-06 by @gfwilliams :) Thanks! I do have an Estimote, but I have to say I haven't used it as much more than a beacon (although does it actually do much more?) |
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Posted at 2016-07-07 by the1laz Awesome! I'm glad you managed to get in on the nrf52, the nrf51 is a bit squishy for most projects. I especially like the effort you've put into the form factor and enclosure, it'll be great for people to start using immediately, perfect for a Bluetooth board. A couple of questions - why did you go with the individual leds over something like a neopixel? Simplicity + ease of use? Also, what is the capacitive sensing that's mentioned? |
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Posted at 2016-07-07 by @gfwilliams It's mainly power consumption - neopixels actually draw quite a bit of power even when off, and you want the maximum efficiency with a small battery. Also, if I went with an RGB module, they're often taller, and harder to source.... Going with 0603 LEDs means I have loads of choice and it's much less likely I'll have trouble getting parts when manufacturing. Also, nRF52 has loads of pins that I have no hope of all breaking out, so I can afford to use them for different things :) for instance one for powering the magnetometer so it can be turned off when not in use. The capacitive sensing is using the NFC aerial (which is a ring around the edge of the board) as a capacitive sensor - so there's an extra pin used with a feed resistor. I haven't properly tested it yet so I'm not 100% sure how good it'll be, so I'm trying not to make too big a deal out of it - but if it works well enough it might even be able to measure soil moisture (coarsely) :) |
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Posted at 2016-07-07 by the1laz Fair enough, I didn't realise they were so hungry! I wonder whether you could do non-contact AC voltage detention with it that antenna... Nice kickstarter page btw, good luck! |
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Posted at 2016-07-07 by @gfwilliams Thanks! Hmm, not sure - it's possible. You might be able check the voltage on it and check if it's oscillating up and down - I might leave that for you to try when it's released! :) |
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Posted at 2016-07-07 by @allObjects Congratulations - @gordon! ~23h to get to 100%! --- 23:06 'exactly'! The 331st backer carried the baton over the 100% finish line... Now the work begins: Not only for @gordon, but for us - the already existing community - to rally for reaching stretch goals! The puck came flying as a great surprise! - Conclusion: any board that wants to find a market needs to have (wireless) network communication integrated. Without that, it just doesn't go anywhere... last but not least it's called IoT where I includes net. |
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Posted at 2016-07-08 by tve Question: is the bluetooth code on the puck all open-source or are there proprietary binary blobs that are loaded? |
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Posted at 2016-07-08 by @gfwilliams If anyone's interested in having a more in-depth look at the beacon, there's a WebGL version here - use the mouse and arrow keys: http://pur3.co.uk/beacon/ The PCB on there is an older revision so it looks slightly different to the real one, but it's mostly the same - I just haven't had time to update it. @allObjects we'll see how it goes in the next few days, but I think having integrated radio does make things pretty appealing to people now! @tve all of Espruino is Open Source, but the nRF52 uses something they call a 'softdevice' which handles BT and is a binary blob. Their reasoning is they can get that certified, so you can create BT devices without having to pay to get them re-done. It's great on nRF52 where you have 64kB RAM - but it sucks on the cheap nRF51s where you have 16kB and the stack takes up 10 of it! |
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Posted at 2016-07-08 by @allObjects With personal computers - desktop, laptop, tablets, phablets,... - all having bluetooth - and cellphones becoming omnipresent and more an more powerful, they can be seen as hubs and can act as the PAN - Personal Area Network - or NAN - Near field communication Area Network - and respective server. No need to put a full wifi stack on the gazillion small devices around them - very low power bluetooth is good enough. Enabling the relevant protocols to have 'xyz protocol over bluetooth' enables uniform software on any device and any layer. |
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Posted at 2016-07-08 by @gfwilliams I'd really like to see some kind of standard for BLE -> Internet bridging. It seems someone has done an example for MQTT, but as far as I can tell it is only one direction at the moment. Annoyingly it seems that most BLE implementations have a limit on the number of concurrent connections, so it is difficult to have a secure(ish) bridge to the net for more than 6 devices. We could come up with something that worked for MQTT, but I think the only sensible solution for bridging right now is to go full-on IPv6 - something I plan to implement later. |
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Posted at 2016-07-11 by Wilberforce Not sure if this the bridging you are looking for, the Apple TV 3 & 4 are Apple HomeKit hubs... This is a project that talks HomeKit, that might be of some use: |
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Posted at 2016-07-11 by @gfwilliams Wow, nice! Well, that would be good - the worry for me is this is Apple, and with HomeKit they've intentionally kept it non-open... I think I'll get in trouble unless I sign up to the Apple MFI program for £££ and pay them per-unit. Honestly, as nice as it is, I'm pretty sure one of 3 things would happen if I used this:
Nordic actually have a IoT SDK here: https://www.nordicsemi.com/eng/Products/Bluetooth-low-energy/nRF5-SDK-for-IoT Which includes code for a OpenWRT or Raspberry Pi-based router, which I think is the way forward for now. My understanding is it's supposed to all be standards-compliant, so the actual router manufacturers should be starting to implement it at some point. |
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Posted at 2016-07-12 by @allObjects I just love numbers... also just for their coincidental looks... almost like art. ('Snapshot' was taken with 23.5 days left, to be more precise).Attachments: |
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Posted at 2016-07-12 by Ollie @allObjects :) You left a sitter for us to point out - 175% pledged and 75% time left |
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Posted at 2016-07-25 by @gfwilliams Yes, I'm being totally unimaginative and calling it 'Espruino WiFi' - I just heard that they're shipping me some this week, so I'll see if they work or not! Try keeping an eye on http://forum.espruino.com/conversations/280652/ for updates :) |
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Posted at 2016-07-29 by DrAzzy Can someone try to convince me to back this? What are people planning on doing with these? What is the appeal of a bluetooth LE device? What is this "beacon" thing that people are talking about, and why would I want to use it? |
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Posted at 2016-07-31 by @gfwilliams :) you're probably a bit of an outlier, in that you've already got a bunch of self-made RF-based home automation stuff you're using. IMO the use case you'd be most interested in is:
... Then there's the possibility of IPv6, so you'll be able to treat these things almost like they're on WiFi, but just with a decent battery life. Also, modules with nRF51/52 are actually pretty cheap. By backing Puck.js you make sure that the software for them gets nice and mature, and then you can use it to make your own devices that use the bare modules - which IMO will work out cheaper than using separate radio + MCU :) |
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Posted at 2016-08-01 by MrTimcakes @drazzy Maybe think of it as a way of giving a little for using ESP8266's for which Gordon earns nothing. |
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Posted at 2016-08-01 by JumJum Amazon opened a new launch pad for kickstarter. |
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Posted at 2016-08-01 by @gfwilliams @jumjum thanks! That's really interesting - hadn't seen it before, I'll have to see how it works |
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Posted at 2016-08-30 by socie123 Will you ever release the puck.js device as just a BT module with Espruino on it - like the Nordic type module that you are using on puck at present ? It would be handy to develop your own products using this as a base like pico on BT. |
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Posted at 2016-08-30 by @allObjects @socie123, do you mean without battery holder clip, casing and cover? @gordon, would that become the Espruino-BLE? I think, puck.js is just the better name: a slap-shot puck is slick, power-full, and very very fast. |
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Posted at 2016-08-30 by Spocki Puck is an elf in William Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream". Last seen in Dota 2 ;-) |
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Posted at 2016-08-30 by socie123 yes, use puck without case, battery and main board - that is just use Nordic smt module with espruino on it to access the i/o pins on module and create your own products. Gordon touched on it there in previous reply but I guess that will be next year if ever and after working out a way to get some revenue from this idea ? |
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Posted at 2016-08-30 by @gfwilliams Hi - yes, it's definitely something I've been considering... Right now you can get the modules as samples from Raytac (MDBT42) and can program them with an nRF52 DK. The issue for the moment is I reckon the firmware's going to have quite a few updates during the few months after the Pucks get released. Most people buying just the modules will want firmware that's a bit more stable (with the Puck, updating firmware over BLE is ok, but if you just bought modules you don't really want to have to worry about that). So when the Puck's been out for a few months I think I'll start providing pre-programmed modules, and will provide things like Eagle CAD outlines for them too - to make things a bit easier. It kind of depends on the volume though - I don't want to have 1000 modules sitting around with out of date firmware, and if I have to manually update the firmware on each module before sending it out, that's going to cost me quite a bit |
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Posted at 2016-08-30 by socie123 Hi Gordon, |
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Posted at 2016-09-05 by @gfwilliams Hi - it is possible, but to be honest the firmware (and API) will probably change quite a lot over the next few months, so if you want to keep it all up to date you'll be doing quite a lot of work. I expect things will have settled down a lot by the new year though. And yes, you can use nRF52 as BLE master without Espruino (I believe nRF51 can do it as well, there's just less memory available) - there are a bunch of examples provided by Nordic, it's called 'central' mode (as opposed to 'peripheral'). |
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Posted at 2016-09-05 by socie123 Hi Gordon, thanks for this. Do you think that you will stick with Raytac modules going forward ? We do not want to design a product now with Raytac and then espruino ends up on a different module next year ? |
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Posted at 2016-09-06 by @gfwilliams I can't say for sure I'm afraid. It doesn't take a great deal of effort to make it run on different nRF52 modules though. |
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Posted at 2016-07-06 by @gfwilliams
We've just launched a new KickStarter!
It's for a Bluetooth Beacon that runs JavaScript, using the nRF52832 - a power-efficient ARM microcontroller with Bluetooth 5.0, 64kB RAM and 512kB ROM.
Please back us! I'm really excited about this - especially with the whole IP over Bluetooth thing that'll hopefully be gaining popularity soon!
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/gfw/puckjs-the-ground-breaking-bluetooth-beacon
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